Appendix B Glossary | Linksys WUSB11 manual

Instant WirelessTM Series

Appendix B: Glossary

Ad-hoc Network - A simple peer-to-peer network or the sharing of local resources between wireless networked PCs.

Default Gateway - The router used to forward all traffic that is not addressed to a station within the local subnet.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) - A protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization’s network. Using the Internet’s set of protocol (TCP/IP), each machine that can connect to the Internet needs a unique IP address. When an organization sets up its computer users with a con- nection to the Internet, an IP address must be assigned to each machine. Without DHCP, the IP address must be entered manually at each computer and, if computers move to another location in another part of the network, a new IP address must be entered. DHCP lets a network administrator supervise and dis- tribute IP addresses from a central point and automatically sends a new IP address when a computer is plugged into a different place in the network.

DHCP uses the concept of a “lease” or amount of time that a given IP address will be valid for a computer. The lease time can vary depending on how long a user is likely to require the Internet connection at a particular location. It’s espe- cially useful in education and other environments where users change fre- quently. Using very short leases, DHCP can dynamically reconfigure networks in which there are more computers than there are available IP addresses.

DHCP supports static addresses for computers containing Web servers that need a permanent IP address.

DNS - The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain name are located and translated into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. A domain name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember “handle” for an Internet address.

Dynamic IP Address - An IP address that is automatically assigned to a client station in a TCP/IP network, typically by a DHCP server. Network devices that serve multiple users, such as servers and printers, are usually assigned static IP addresses.

ESS - More than one BSS in a network.

Wireless USB Network Adapter

Firmware - Code that is written onto read-only memory (ROM) or program- mable read-only memory (PROM). Once firmware has been written onto the ROM or PROM, it is retained even when the device is turned off.

Hot Swap - The ability to replace a card or other hardware part in a hardware device without turning it off or losing functionality.

IEEE - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEE describes itself as “the world’s largest technical professional society—promot- ing the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well- being of our members.”

The IEEE fosters the development of standards that often become national and international standards. The organization publishes a number of journals, has many local chapters, and several large societies in special areas, such as the IEEE Computer Society.

Infrastructure - An infrastructure network is a wireless network or other small network in which the wireless network devices are made a part of the network through the Access Point which connects them to the rest of the network.

IP Address - In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-binary digit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packet across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requester or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received.

IPCONFIG - A utility that provides for querying, defining and managing IP addresses within a network. A commonly used utility, under Windows NT and 2000, for configuring networks with static IP addresses.